Commuters face huge fare rises to fund high-speed train they will never use

Tens of thousands of commuters face huge fare rises to pay for a high-speed train service they will never use.

By David Millward, Transport Editor

3:33PM GMT 02 Jan 2009

Some passengers on Southeastern, which serves Kent, East Sussex and south east London, are facing increases approaching four times the rate of inflation to contribute towards the cost of 140mph Javelin train.

But the majority of commuters will gain no benefit from the service when it starts at the end of the year.

Those that do will, in any case, face further fare rises of up to 35 per cent.

News of the Southeastern fare rises triggered an angry reaction from passengers and MPs.

"This is unbelievable, these rises are extortionate," said Greg Barker, a Tory MP whose constituents in Battle have been hit with a 10.3 per cent rise.

"People in my part of East Sussex will be up in arms over Gordon Brown allowing these hikes to happen at a time when the economy is imploding."

While commuters across the country face average rises of six per cent, the Government has allowed South Eastern to push up its fares by an additional two per cent.

But rather than impose an across the board eight per cent rise – Southeastern has pushed up some fares by considerably more.

Many of the losers are on the fringes of London. Commuters from Bromley South will see the cost of a weekly season ticket go up from £28.50 to £31.80 – a rise of 11.58 per cent.

They will not even get to use the train, which will run on the high speed line built for the Channel Tunnel and go into St Pancras.

Commuters travelling into London from Bexleyheath and Hayes also face an 11.58 per cent rise, while those coming in from Wadhurst, East Sussex, will pay an extra 10 per cent.

The new round of fare rises has seen the average cost of commuting across the country – with the exception of Southeastern – increase by six per cent.

First Capital Connect’s annual season ticket between Cambridge and London has increased by 3.8 per cent to £3,780.

On TransPennine Express the cost of an annual season ticket between Middlesbrough and York has gone up by 6.8 per cent to £3,960. An annual season ticket between Caerphilly and Cardiff Queen Street has risen 6.2 per cent to £756.

Other regulated fares outside commuter times, including cut-price long distance trips where the ticket was bought on the day of travel, also increased by an average of six per cent.

Fares which are not covered by a Government cap have been risen by an average of seven per cent. They include discounted fares bought ahead of the day of travel.

But according to Passenger Focus, train operators have also imposed some backdoor rises by cutting back on journeys classified as off-peak. For example it was possible to buy a discounted “saver” return ticket from London to Glasgow on any train last year.

Now, new rules mean that anyone wanting to leave Euston before 9.30am will have to pay the full cost of a return ticket, £252, rather than the £102 saver rate.

Theresa Villiers, the Tories' transport spokesman, accused the Government of demanding higher fares while not tackling overcrowding.

Norman Baker, her Liberal Democrat counterpart added: "This is just an attack on passengers who are being forced to pay for something which they won't benefit from.

"It really is a case of fares being unfair."

Ashwin Kumar, passenger director for the national rail watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "Southeastern's passengers returning to work today by rail will question why their train fares are going up by more than other passengers across Great Britain.

"Those passengers who won't benefit from the new high speed service coming in December will be astounded that their fares are going up to pay for a train journey they won't even be offered."

Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the Transport and Salaried Staffs Association, also condemned the above inflation fair rises. "This latest increase makes a mockery of the Government's claims to help hard working families through the recession.

"As every other business in the land frantically cuts prices to win customers, we see rail companies cheerfully ripping off passengers by increasing their fares as inflation falls towards zero in 2009.

"Why should they be allowed to defy the laws of economic gravity which means prices should come down in a recession?"

But a spokesman for Southeastern said that the Government had paved the way for fare rises by demanding that passengers pick up a bigger slice of the bill for improving the network.

He said: "The fare increases generally reflect the Government's policy of 'the user pays', as set out in its July 2007 White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Railway. Southeastern's franchise requires it to deliver services against a backdrop of generally declining subsidy.

"It's not just a question of who gets high speed trains, there are other significant factors involved."